Matthews Blog

Colwood and Sustainability

2010-03-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

This blog I will be offering up my thoughts on Colwood and sustainability and if it can ever happen. I will answer with a resounding NO! Never before in all my travels have I seen so many large 4x4 pick up trucks, in an area that does not receive rain in the summer or snow in the winter. I don’t see many bicycle riders.
The so called evil box stores are always busy and the parking are always full, with large pick ups of course. I cannot see how a place like this can ever hope to become something close to sustainable. Lets not forget about the untreated waste that is dumped directly into the ocean.

Victoria and Colwood, like any other community in North America, are built around the car. I have only taken public transit 4 times since moving here 6 months ago from Toronto. Riding public transit to get anywhere aside from downtown is not practical. Buses on some routes only run once every 30 minutes, the signs at bus stops aren’t clear, a student pass is not much cheaper then a standard monthly pass, the list goes on and on.

I ride my bicycle to and from school and the grocery store, which happens to be one of those evil big box stores. I find it funny that we’re encouraged to boycott big box stores, and support local small business instead. But in the case of the Great Canadian Superstore, its Canadian owned, so isn’t that considered local? Also, some of products they sell are locally grown, so once again, that’s me supporting local business.

The idea of locally grown food is another farce. Thanks to the global food trade, we can have certain luxuries, such as oranges and strawberries in January. If we subscribe to the idea of locally grown food, that means meat, potatoes, turnips, and cabbage for every meal for 6 months. Greenhouses might offer some variety of fruit and vegetables, but at a high price.

I could go on and on with a rant, but instead I will try to be positive.
I don’t think that making people feel guilty about their consumption and habits is the way to achieve something resembling sustainability. Instead, some incentives should be used. Maybe some radical thinking, like using GPS logging to track people to see if driving decreases, or highlighting local food at big box stores, so people are not looked down upon for shopping there.

Even where I currently live could use improvements. The house was build in the 70’s from the looks of it, and could use some upgrades to increase energy efficiency. Double paned windows, thicker curtains, and some extra caulking could help minimize heat loss and decrease drafts. Aerators on faucets and composting would reduce water usage as well as garbage. Using backyard gardens can decrease food consumption and provide people with the knowledge of sustainable living and gardening.

I think many different small steps, on many different areas of sustainability is what is needed, instead of a limited focus.

Wiki and project planning

2010-03-20T21:08:00.001-07:00

A wiki is a great way for a group of people to collaborate on a group project. It is a webpage that anyone can access and edit to display information on 1 or a variety of topics. Wikipedia is probably the most famous wiki that comes to mind. We were introduced to creating a wiki for the purpose of using it to host our project dealing with the mapping of the trails on Royal Roads University.

We got introduced to doing Wiki’s as our project that we are presenting to the town of Colwood will be placed on a Wiki site and presented. We were given two main devices to help us with our project. The first is a website called tools of change. The webpage is helpful in the initial stages of the project. It has many helpful ideas to develop objectives, partners, informing people, targeting the correct audience, and choosing tools of change.
The 2nd device given was the ADDIE model. Addie stands for
• Analysis
• Design
• Develop
• Implementation
• Evaluate

This approach made it easy to get the project underway. Its very straightforward. The first step of the ADDIE model is to determine what the underlying issue is. The second step is design a prototype model, apply strategies according to the intended outcome, and narrow down the subject matter. The development stage is to determine the process as to how the project will be completed. The implementation stage is when everything comes together and a working model is produced. The 5th and final stage is used to evaluate the working model, and correct any errors found.

My part of the ADDIE model is the evaluation portion. So I will be tasked with going over everyone’s work, and finding any suggestions and room for improvement. I feel that this is a good role for me, as I am usually fairly critical work people’s work, so I shouldn’t have any problems finding areas for suggestions.

Community Based Social Marketing

2010-03-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM) is a concept that works on the idea that information is not enough to change behavior of people. Instead, it actually engages the community in a way of showing benefits and techniques that can be used to achieve goals for a great social good.

The advantage of social marketing is that it targets people in communities that are ready and willing for a change. CBSM isn’t just another advertising campaign, but rather a strategically planned out message to target a specific audience.

To facilitate change, there needs to be a goal in mind, and therefore some questions need to be asked to help develop successful plan
1. What is the social and environmental problems that need to be addressed
2. What actions can be taken to address these problems properly
3. Address who your audience is and how you are asking them to take action
4. What kind of exchange does the audience want for adopting the new behavior
5. How will you make the audience believe what you are offering is real and true
6. Who is your competition and what are they offering opposed to your concept
7. What is the best time and place to reach and intrigue your audience
8. How often and from who does the concept have to be presented
9. How can I integrate the audience to influence their behavior
10. Do I have the resources needed to create this concept alone; and if not, where can I find useful partners

After the 10 initial questions are tackled, the campaign experiences five steps that benefit the community marketing and allows the model to adapt to different situations. Any possible barriers and benefits can be examined on a case by case basis. Literature research, focus groups and surveys can be performed to gather information. Once the possible barriers have been identified, emphasis can be placed on correcting or avoiding them.
After this, a pilot program can be run and tested and evaluated. The initial testing is vital because the results can be compared to expected results and then adjustments can be made as necessary.

The fourth step is implementing the project after all the changes have been made. A project that has been evaluated will have a success rate when compared to a project that has not given appropriate attention to potential problems

Open Space

2010-03-20T17:44:00.001-07:00

Today as I walked into the classroom, I was greeted with an unexpected sight. The entire class was seated in a circle. I thought a big round of Kumbaya was about to begin; unfortunately (or fortunately), this did not occur. Instead, I was treated to the “open space” concept. Open space is designed to encourage creativity and allow people (students in this case) to come up with ideas and allow others to gravitate towards them.

Rick instructed us to write our ideas of how Colwood can become carbon neutral on large sheets of paper, and post them on the board. However feels strongly with any particular project can then join that project, or, if nothing of interest is available, anyone is free to make their own.

Rick described open space as whatever happened was the only thing that could have happened, and whoever joined in on the projects were the only ones who should have. He also described the law of 2 feet, and that people were able to use their 2 feet to decide where they wanted to be.

My 2 feet brought me to a group planning to map out Colwoods bicycle trails. We quickly decided that this was too daunting of a task. We decided to just map out the trails of Royal Roads University, which seems a much more reasonable concept.

I planned to procure a GPS from the school and test it out before actually mapping out the trail system.

Land Usage & Urban form / Food

2010-03-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

Gene Miller was the first guest of the morning. He is from the Center for Urban Innovation. I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation, although Rick Kool didn’t seem to agree with it, and vocalized his displeasure , after Gene had left the room.

Gene Miller was more a “doom and gloom” type guy. I found his outlook to be very refreshing compared to the usual tripe of rainbows, butterflies, and sustainability, that we are normally fed with. Gene discussed late stage capitalism and how it has effected our ability to resilient to change.

I completely agree with Gene and his viewpoint. Our society has become too reliant on technology to supply our needs, be it transportation, food, or environmental, at the cost of our planet. Gene summed up his viewpoints and presentation with one interesting quote A quote that Gene said sums climate change very appropriately; “The metabolism of our economy is on a collision course with the metabolism of our planet”

I feel this is a very true quote. Gene is describing our increasing consumption habits, and need to drive the economy, being in conflict with the “synergy” of the planet. Oil is being removed from the planet much faster then it is being replenished, regardless if someone subscribes to the abiotic oil theory, or the conventional dead dinosaur theory.

We then heard from Cindy Moyer of Colwood Climate Action and Jennifer Girard of Capital Families who both discussed issues of bringing food security to the Colwood community and surrounding areas. Food security and community resistance go hand in hand. In order a community to be sustainable, food needs to be at the top of the list, since people eat 3-5 meals per day.

One way of increasing food security is to use available land for food, similar to the Green Belt in Ontario he B.C was a pioneer in this idea, using the ALR, Agricultural Land Reserve, which set aside 4.7 million hectares in 1976. This is a good way of preserving existing farm land, but doesn’t address what can be done at a local level.

Jennifer Girard of Capital Families, introduced the idea of the Gardening Neighbourhood Project. This will allow people who want to get involved with growing their on food, but are unfamiliar with how to implement it, to contact an experienced gardener to guide them and help them set up the garden. I feel this an excellent idea to start people thinking about local food and actually implementing small scale gardens which will help contribute to sustainability.

Sustainable Transportation

2010-02-06T21:19:00.003-08:00

Transportation is one of my favourite topics. I have worked for the Toronto Transit Commission http://www3.ttc.ca/ for the past 3 summers, and I am an avid motorcyclist. I feel that discussing transportation is one of my strengths, however, making it sustainable will be a challenge to discuss, but I’ll give it my best.

Call this a general sweeping statement, but people love their cars, and to get people out of their cars is not to far off from the famous Charlton Heston quote “From my cold dead hands”. Cars, in my opinion, represent freedom, a way to escape from our troubles, and gives a sense of familiarity. Some friends of mine, myself included, love to pack a lunch, get in (or on) our vehicles, hit the open road without a map or any sense of a direction, and go where the wind shall take us.

To get people out of their cars and onto public transit is no easy feat. A suitable replacement for the comfort and warmth of a personal vehicle must exist, but unfortunately, in most North American cities, such a replacement is only a transit fans wet dream.

The speaker, Todd Litman, in class shared the same vision as myself. I found it comical though when he was describing how someone might possibly catch a bus in the not too distant future. Someone sitting in a coffee shop (where else to hippies hang out aside from coffee shops?) would see a LED board on the wall saying the next bus is due in 3 minutes, then he take his coffee (over priced mind you), gets on the bus, pays with a smart card, and is whisked away to transit paradise.

Those ideas are already implemented in Europe, and North America is about 30 years behind in technology and innovation.

Most buses aren’t exactly the epitome of efficiency. They’re loud, uncomfortable, infrequent, and don’t add anything to working business class person’s commute. If a Wifi connection is available, it might make taking the bus a little more appealing to someone who wants to catch up on work during a commute. More comfortable seating and sound dampening would also contribute. Of course, the human element on the bus cant be controlled, but who knows, maybe a first class section on a double decker bus could be implemented for people who want to pay a little bit extra to have peace and quiet.

Of course, those are all nice ideas for the vehicle itself, but it still doesn’t solve the problem of the commute time. I think a lane on the any highway should be ”removed” and turned into a dedicated bus ROW (right of way) so that buses don’t need to travel with traffic, and will become the envy of all the people stuck along the highway.

LRT (light rail transit) is another excellent way of getting people out of their Ford F-450’s. In my home town, the center of the universe, Toronto, the TTC has streetcars, which are a form of LRT but suffer the same fast as cars in the downtown core, since there is no separation from cars. Streetcars get stuck in traffic and end up become slow moving pylons. As mentioned before, I believe the answer to this problem once again lies in a dedicated transit lane so that regular car traffic isn’t a hindrance.

In a perfect world, everyone would ride motorcycles and not have to worry about taking up a lot of space on the road or searching for parking spots, but alas, this is Canada, with winter, so my little Utopian idea wont come to pass.

Sustainability & Municipalities

2010-02-06T21:19:00.001-08:00

Blog 3 Sustainability and the Municipality

To achieve sustainability, an effort must be made at all levels of government, as well as personal accountability.
Municipalities can play a vital role regarding increasing community and local sustainability. Although they have no direct control over transportation, which usually falls under the provincial umbrella, they can still assist it. Municipalities can encourage bus only lanes, and car-pooling.

Bicycle lanes and parking is usually the responsibility of municipalities. All new business and even existing ones should be forced to install bike racks to promote bicycle usage. Heavy bicycle traffic areas should be designated with bicycle specific lanes and on road grade separation so that bicyclists don’t directly share the road with cars. The municipality can offer a discount on helmets and lights to encourage their purchase. In addition, certain days can be dedicated to bicycle maintenance classes and rider training.

One of the biggest contributions that I believe municipalities can give to sustainability is the promotion of local business. It goes with the slow city idea to promote local food and business. The municipality, especially a small one such as Colwood, could start a bi monthly newsletter highlighting different business within the town. The local business can then demonstrate how they are sustainable and the benefits of purchasing local products and supporting local businesses. Again, this idea goes back to the slow city movement. Community events are organized at the municipal level. Local citizens and business can support one another towards sustainability.

Community gardens and tree planting initiatives can provide much needed green space and provide a source for local and sustainable food.

I feel I’m being too repetitive in this blog, most of what the municipality can add to sustainability has been mention in previous blogs, the slow city movement and transition town sum up what can be done.

Community based research and engagement

2010-01-27T22:02:00.000-08:00

Today, January 21, 3 people came to our class. The first two guests were Sarah Webb, from the Capital Region District (CRD) and Jordan Fisher from Jordan Fisher and associates. Sarah Webb (who is also my sponsor in our major projects) discussed community engagement, the CRD’s climate action program and the 4 goals of the program.

I believe community engagement is an important issue to tackle. It gives people a sense of community (duh) and can also increase social capital, a term I learned from last quarters sustainability program. Sense of community and community engagement, to me, means knowing you’re a member of a particular group, and making positive contributions toward the betterment of the community.
I play an active role on my community back home in Toronto. I try to clean up garbage whenever I see it. I email local business and industries inquiring about their pollution and other possible adverse affects as a result of their operation. I communicate, on occasion, with city councilors, with whatever issues are going on in my community.

Sarah also mentioned the climate action program (CAP). The CRD plans to be carbon neutral by 2012. I don’t think they are anywhere near reaching that goal in the 2 years left until that date. Perhaps the CRD is hoping on some sort of Armageddon scenario in 2012 and the 4 horseman will break the seven seals of climate change to destroy all the carbon in the region. An unlikely scenario, but there is a better chance of pale horse riding out of the sky then a government in Canada actually meeting a goal it set out.

The third guest of the day was Maeve Lydon. She works at UVIC in the office of community based research and is also involved with community based green mapping. I find the whole concept of a community green map really exciting. It reminds me of Sesame Street song “Who are the people in your neighbourhood”. The community map is an excellent idea to connect with their community to obtain a sense of place and purpose. Not only that, but it also highlights the environmentally positive aspects of a community, for the eco minded citizen.
I hope that sometime during my tenure at RRU, we’ll be able to get the chance to work on a community green map.

Slow cities

2010-01-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

Victoria Region Transition Initiative

Today (January 14) in class, we had Michelle Colussi to transition communities. Michelle demonstrated the concept of transition communities / towns, which to me are a larger form of community engagement.
Transition towns help to bring communities together, to reduce dependence on outside sources, so that the towns/communities can become self-sufficient.
I came across this YouTube video of the man who popularized (I believe) transition town movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGHrWPtCvg0
The town that is featured in the video is Totness, in South West England. The town is a center for new age thinkers, arts, music and alternative health, not unlike our vary own Victoria.
In the video, Rob Hopkins discusses transition towns and reducing our dependency on oil. While I think it’s a good idea to start to become less dependant on oil, we (society) certainly can’t remove the necessity of oil.
I do like the concept presented in the video of the local currency to be used in local shops. I feel that will strengthen a community, which comes back to the notion of community engagement.
Unfortunately, the video did not show much else; the viewers are encouraged to purchase the “transition handbook” which I cannot afford.

The other guest we had in class today was Mara Jernigan from Fairburn Farms. http://www.fairburnfarm.bc.ca/. She presented a previously unknown concept to me, one of slow food or cittaslow. I think on paper this is a good idea, to have locally grown food, and towns built upon a small community idea, where everything is local and sustainable, however, in reality, I don’t think this idea can work.
Mara came from Cowichan Bay, which is Canada’s first slow city. According to a 2006 census, the population of Cowichan Bay is 1,361, which lends itself to the fact that it is host to Canada’s first slow city.
In my not so humble opinion, a city with a larger population, 5000 or more, cannot be a slow city. People are too spread out, there are too many different cultures (depending on location) and different ages. Cowachin Bay seems to be a uniform conglomeration of middle aged northern Europeans, who no doubt share the same ideas, to resist change and live in a little utopia.
For a large city, even one the size of Victoria, the citta slow movement wouldn’t work. There is no way a community that large, with a population of appx 300,000 for the CRD, and 80,000 for Victoria proper, can sustain itself.
That is why I believe citta slow is good on paper, but a flunk in reality.

2009-12-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

Blog 8 My Stuff and consumption Habits

2009-12-11T00:12:00.000-08:00

I am quite proud of my consumption habits. I am a self proclaimed very frugal (not cheap!) individual. I don’t need the latest video card for my computer, nor do I buy a pair of shoes every 3 months.

I am one of those evil 2 wheeler motorcyclists that people love to hate. I buy 2 tires every year, plus the drive chain, sprockets. Lets not forget about the sheer amount of pollution my exhaust pipe spews into the atmosphere. In my defense, I don’t own a car, and the fuel consumption on my bike is about 5 L / 100km, which is very decent by car standards. However the emissions is not something I’m proud of.
But getting away from my hobby, I am not a big consumer. I don’t believe in spending any of my hard earned pennies. I try to save as much as possible for those inevitable rainy day events. I try to recycle whenever possible. When I visit the grocery store I always use a reusable cloth bag (which is the only bag I can get at the superstore).

The lecture in class revealed that the soles of running shoes contain many heavy metals and other toxic substances. I haven’t bought a new pair of shoes in 3 years, but that doesn’t help much when everyone else’s shows are walking toxic waste repositories.

I recently purchased a metal water bottle. I think plastic water bottles for the most part are a huge waste. However they are convenient when running out of the house or going on a hike and you need to keep the weight of your backpack down.
More pressure needs to be put on manufactures to find alternative methods of production of goods. I also think that the manufactures should implement recovery systems for products. Items such as computers contain many rare metals, and a lot end up being thrown into landfills. If the manufactures would even offer an incentive, albeit a small one, for the return of some computer components, I believe this would be a major step in the right direction.

Also, manufactures should make products that don’t need to be replaced every 6 months. This will affect their bottom line at first, but I believe that if a manufacturer will stand behind their product for 3-5 years, more people would be inclined to purchase it.

I think there needs to be a major shift in our society away from consumerism. People need to realize they don’t have to keep up with the Jones’, and that there is no shame in having something older. The whole image is everything and bigger / newer is better is a very destructive image

A new way of thinking is required, but that in itself is wishful thinking

Blog 7 Synthesis of presentations.

2009-12-10T23:42:00.000-08:00

Today we had all the groups from the class present their various topics from “A Geography of Hope” on themes pertaining to sustainability. Overall I found it enlightening, albeit at times some of the groups overlapped each other, but I suppose it’s the same in the realm of sustainability, where topics will overlap.

Team 1 covered the topic of sustainable energy and used a case study from Denmark, which was mentioned in our course book “A Geography of Hope”. Their local case study was from Barrie, Ontario and dealt with solar powered lights to be used in parks.
The main point that I gathered from group 1’s presentation is that our current supply of energy comes from dirty sources. Coal and oil power plants not only produce CO2 in vast quantities when power is generated, but also during the extraction of the raw fuel and the transportation of it to the power plant. The case study the group used was an island in Denmark called Samso. All the electricity generated on the island comes from wind turbines. In fact, wind turbines produce 24% or 3100MW of Denmark’s power. In Canada, we have a similar amount of wind generated, at 3150 MW according to http://www.canwea.ca/pdf/Canada%20Current%20Installed%20Capacity_e.pdf. We still have a long way to go, as there are still many coal fired plants, such as Nanticoke in Ontario still in operation.
Wind power is also a major player in Denmark’s economy, which contributes to wind power being very sustainable to that country.

Group 2, which is my group, covered sustainable transportation. We looked at a case study from Singapore dealing with hydrogen fueled cars, and a case study that I had found comparing 3 universities across the country and the impacts of implementing a universal transit, or u-pass had.
The hydrogen cars in Singapore were not overly sustainable because of the cost of the car and the infrastructure needed to sustain them. It is pointless to produce a car if the fuel can only be replenished a 1 station. The case study regarding the universities was of particular interest to me because I’ve worked for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) for the past 3 summers, so I had somewhat of a vested interested in the study. The long and the short of it was the introduction of the universal transit passes at The University of Victoria, The University of Western Ontario and St. Mary’s University was a success. It increased the public transit use of students to bring them to and from school. It also increased the use of public transit on weekend and non school hours. Another benefit of increasing public transit and reducing car usage was that land that was otherwise used for parking lots was able to be built on, which preserved green space.

The idea of a transit pass has been thrown around RRU. This would not work in the least at the school. It is in an isolated part of Victoria, in Colwood, which doesn’t have much of a public transit system to begin with. There aren’t enough students at the school to make it economically feasible to implement. Lastly the school doesn’t have the road infrastructure to facilitate full sized buses coming into the campus every 10 minutes between 8 and 9, then again between 4 and 5.

Group 3 covered sustainable urban development. I’m not sure what their examples from the book were, although I think it was the distillery district in downtown Toronto and Belmar, a suburb of Denver Co. Both of those examples dealt with having a pedestrian friendly core and keeping cars out of the main area. The example that group 3 used was Dockside Green in Victoria and Malmö in Sweden. Dockside Green is a green minded persons’ wet dream. It is built over a Brownfield, incorporates waste reduction, on-site heat generation, and even maintained part of the Galloping Goose Regional Bicycle trail. Malmo is a large city in Sweden that encompases many sustainable features. It has a power plant which burns biogas. Many of the apartment complexes in Malmo are now sporting solar panels to reduce energy consumption. Malmo helps to increase its sustainability by reducing the ecological footprint caused by hydrocarbon fueled power plants.
Ideally, I would like to see RRU use some solar panels so the school can come close to achieving its sustainability goal, but unfortunately the weather in Victoria between November and March doesn’t favour the sun.
The case study the group went into detail about was the use of green roofs. Green roofs contribute many different factors to sustainability. They clean the air due to the roof being “green”. They are made from placing soil on top of a conventional asphalt roof and planting various flowers, bushes and other plants. Green roofs also reduce storm water runoff, which helps to clean water ways and prevent peak surges from occurring. There is also the added benefit of having a place for birds to rest and providing them with shelter.

Group 4 had a similar theme to group 3. They covered sustainable buildings and green roofs in Toronto. I should mention that I did a study of a degraded watershed in Toronto, the Black Creek. One of the recommendations that I had to improve the watershed as a whole, and solve a number of water quality problems associate with the creek was to implement the use of green roofs throughout the Black Creeks 66 km2 watershed.
Group 4 used a case study of a house called the Chateau Mango. The Chateau Mango was designed with sustainability in mind. It comes with the usual assortment of solar panels, south facing windows, special paint to heating and a way to recover air conditioning moisture. The 1500 ft2 was quoted at costing $125,000. I’ m not sure which currency that is in, but I’ll assume the Loonie. More houses should be designed with sustainability in mind, it will greatly improve the ecological footprint and GHG of our society if our homes could be more energy efficient.
Group 5 unfortunately didn’t upload their powerpoint to the course site, so I cant speak about that presentation.
Group 6 covered Smart Design. Smart Design uses ideas and technologies used to efficiently create long term living/working space. It can reduce the negative effects on ecological health and improve the quality of life for residents. Smart Design can come from LEED certification. LEED certification is a rating system of how “green” a building is. It uses elements similar to the previous groups Chateau Mango in its design. Bio-mimicry is another example of Smart Design. Its taking natures design and modeling it into a man made structure. The best example that I can think of for this is the airplane wing. A birds wing was the inspiration for Orville and Wilbur Wright to build their Wright Flyer.
Group 6 referred to Royal Roads University and smart design. They provided the following examples of how RRU contributes to smart design
• Compost bins in the classrooms
• Recycle plastic and glass
• Composts paper towels
• Non-flushing urinals (Water efficiency)
• Restoring the Colwood creek watershed
• Bateman Center (Gold LEED certified

I don’t agree with this completely. Installing a compost bin in a classroom doesn’t take the design of the building into considering, its just putting a bucket in a room. Restoring Colwood creek and the much hyped Bateman Center will be good examples of smart design.

Team 8 covered the ideology of sustainability. They covered the use of communication in the realm of sustainability. I believe this is a fundamental factor in the sustainability movement. Without effective communication, its impossible for them message of sustainability to spread.
Team 8 also focused on advertising, and a term called green washing. In a nut shell (cue Austin Powers joke) green washing are all the outlandish claims that a manufacturer will use to market and sell a product to the green crowd. I found this slide to be quite interesting
TerraChoice Environmental Marketing: 1018 products, 1753 claims
• Sin of the hidden trade-off (998 products, 57% of claims)
• Sin of no proof (454 products, 26% of claims)
• Sin of vagueness (196 products, 11% of claims)
• Sin of irrelevance (78 products, 4% of claims)
• Sin of fibbing (10 products, <1% of claims)
• Sin of lesser of two evils (17 products, 1% of claims)
• Sin of worshipping false labels (23% of claims)

It pretty much sums up how I feel about most so-called green products. They might be in a green bottle, but that’s the extent of how green they actually are.
Team 8 used David Suzuki as their case study and example of a good communicator. He is one of the faces of the green movement, and can reach a wide audience with his messages. He has his TV show, The Nature of Things, he’s also on CBC radio, he has written more than 40 books, and even has a Facebook page.

The presentations were very well done and thought provoking. I enjoyed them thoroughly. I am glad we got the opportunity to research and discuss various aspects of sustainability.

Blog 6 An example of sustainable development – Dockside Green

2009-12-10T23:40:00.000-08:00

Dockside Green was unheard of to me before I moved to Victoria. I had even rode my bicycle past it one a trip along the Galloping Goose Regional Trail without knowing it was there. I was completely unaware of it being a prime example of sustainable development in the CRD.

Dockside Green is a 1.3 million ft2 mixed use sustainable community development. It’s a co-development of Vancity Credit Union and Windmill West. It is build upon a former 16 acre Brownfield with the intention of fulfilling a three part philosophy in sustainable development of environmental, social, and economic responsibility. The 16 acre side was quite toxic. It contained many spilled chemicals and heavy metals and one third of the land is landfill from garbage.
Dockside Green achieved a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation of platinum. The development obtained 63 points, whilst only 52 were needed for platinum. Each suite within the Dockside Green development has meters that monitor water and power consumption, which the residents can use to reduce their consumption habits.
Also to reduce the environmental footprint and consumption of the devilment, a number of other services were used. Solar power is used extensively. Street lights, garbage compactors

the steps to be taken in hopes of reducing Dockside Green’s environmental footprint include:
• the use of solar power technologies, including street lights and garbage compactors
• wind turbines
• the incorporation of green roofs on many buildings, including the first three phases of residences
• use of only native and adaptive species in landscaping, and the planned planting of over 1000 trees on the site overall
I don’t think Dockside Green is perfect, not by a long shot. But it’s a step in the right direction. If more buildings like Dockside Green are built in Victoria and across Canada, it could be the critical mass needed to bring sustainability to the fore front of todays society.

Blog 5 My social capital and what affects it

2009-12-10T23:39:00.002-08:00

Social capital reminds me of the force. In the words of the great Jedi Master Yoda “The force surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you. Here, between you, me, the tree, the rock...everywhere! Even between the land and the ship”.
My take on social capital is that it’s the thing that brings everyone together, which then can allow people to work together for a common goal, either to fight the dark side, or increase our sense of community and improve our way of living.

In class we learned that social capital comes from many different factors, and our professor had us draw out our social capital network so that we can see how everything is related with another, and how it defines us in a community which then leads to our social capital.

There seems to different definitions of social capital available to us. Bourdieu (1985:248; 1980) first defined the concept as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more of less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition”. Another perspective of social capital sees it as friends, colleagues, and more general contacts through which you receive opportunities to use your financial and human capital” Burt (1992: 9). Many analysts have emphasized the centrality of two factors to social capital: trust and social networks (Portes 1998; Putnam 1993; Woolcock 1998; Fukuyama 1995; Misztral 1996).

My social capital stems from many different factors. In the next 9 or so months, school will be a main contributing factor to my social capital. I do plan on attending a post graduate program, if possible, so my school life will continue to contribute to my social capital for 2 years after Royal Roads. My concern for the environment its another aspect of my social capital, which is connected to my school and friends.

In the realm of social capital, I am a node connecting my school network to my friend network to my family network and to my hobby network. In my social capital, I don’t believe that I have much vertical connections. I don’t have much contact with school administration, nor with local politicians or even bosses, since I am currently unemployed. There is a fair amount of bonding and bridging through between my networks, since they all overlap each other.

I do not belong to any groups, volunteer or otherwise, so that may lower my social capital. I don’t commute far or watch TV (sadly no time for that) which brings up my social capital.

Overall, I feel that I am in a good standing in terms of my social capital. There is always room for improvement

Blog 4 sustainability of RRU campus

2009-12-10T23:39:00.001-08:00

Blog 4 sustainability of RRU campus

Whenever I hear of any institution, whether it be governmental or education, mention reducing carbon emissions, going grid neutral, buying carbon offsets, I always chuckle to myself.

One my favourite T.V shows is “King of The Hill”. The character of Dale Gribble is a conspiracy theorist. In one particular episode, a local propane company was planning to help the environment by purchasing carbon offsets. Dale Gribble mentioned that carbon offsets “are all the rage in Hollywood”. He goes on to say “They’re like a get-out-of-fail-free card for people concerned about the environment, but not concerned enough to actually do anything.” That basically sums up my feelings on the matter.

Our first guest speaker regarding the sustainability of the RRU campus was Dr. Steve Grundy. He is on the campus sustainability committee. I liked him. He was realistic about the sustainability of the campus and the goals that were set forth in the sustainability plan.

The major components of the sustainability plan are as follows
• Greenhouse gas management will result in a 50-per-cent net reduction of emissions from 2007 levels by 2020.

• Going grid-positive will see Royal Roads adopt alternate energy sources not only sustainable but also able to provide surplus electricity and heat that will be made available to local purchasers.

• Campus transportation options include reducing the number of commuters driving alone to the university; re-routing traffic circulation; consolidating parking lots; and implementing a shuttle service.

• Building and heritage conservation projects include re-development of existing buildings and construction of new facilities while maintaining the unique attributes of the campus.

• University stewardship plans include the creation of a Green Purchasing and Product Stewardship Policy and the expansion of Campus Green, university-wide stewardship initiatives led by employee and student advocates who will encourage manageable grassroots projects that minimize waste streams and conserve natural resources.

Dr. Grundy had said some goals had been met in reducing emissions, but the goal of going grid positive by 2010 will not happen. I’ll paraphrase here, but he basically said that the goals have no real meaning, and its just something set forward for good public relations. I applaud his honesty in the whole matter. I find that too often people are unrealistic when it comes to environmental issues. There are lots of goals, but no action on how to attain them.

The next guest was Darren Gardham. He is the supervisor for the custodial and housekeeping services. He had a profound impact on the sustainability of Royal Roads. He told our class that when he first started at the school, the effects of the chemicals were quite harmful. He had to take time off because they were so severe. He took it upon himself to find a better way of cleaning, without the use of strong chemicals.

One of the solutions he came up with is the use of a microfiber cloth to clean surfaces. The product was demonstrated to him by the manufacturing company of the cloths, and after seeing the results under a black light of a washroom that was cleaned, he was convinced. The microfiber cloths cleaned just as well as the chemicals, of course without the harmful odors and other by products associated with strong chemicals.

Another item Darren initiated was the composting of paper towels on campus. I forget the numbers he gave us, but there was a substantial savings from paper towels being diverted from landfills which now go for composting.

After Darren we had the manager from the Habitat café, and her name escapes me at the moment. She said that the café uses corn starch based cutlery, and puts all food waste from plates into an organic garbage bin for composting. Im glad to see the school is taking composting seriously. In my house, a few km away from the school, there is no composting available. A lot of food gets thrown out when it should be composted.

The last two guests of the day were Nancy Wilkin and Keri Laughlin who are part of Royal Roads’ sustainability plan. They didn’t tell us anything we hadn’t already heard, but I found it quite amusing to hear the positive spin a politician (Nancy Wilkin is former deputy Minister of the Environment for B.C) puts on the schools sustainability plan. This was in stark contrast to the grim picture that the first guest. Steve Grundy had presented us with.

I applaud Nancy and Keri for being part of the sustainability plan, but I don’t think the school can be sustainable. Its my personal opinion that the school doesn’t have its priorities in order. The main priority seems to be that they must pat themselves on the back at every moment possible while praising that bloody castle. The gardens and peacocks come 2nd and 3rd, while students and sustainability are way down at the bottom.

I believe the school could become more sustainable, if the effort was put into it, and the bottom line was ignored.

Blog 3 How can I tell what is sustainable.

2009-12-10T23:34:00.000-08:00

Sustainability can come in many forms, but always results in something positive occurring. Using feedback loops as an example, the positive feedback loop is a win win for everyone in that loop. The example presented in class was wages and goods. The cost of living will increase, so wages must go up to match the cost of living, increased wages leads to an increased demand for goods, which means more goods must be produced, creating more jobs in all sectors involved with that, prices will rise as demand goes up, which then starts back as wages increasing again.

Its easy to tell what is not sustainable. A basic example of this is spending more then you earn, you put more into the system then what you get out of it. Along the sustainability lines of that, is the extraction of oil for consumption / processing. With oil reserves in depletion (which is still up for debate) all over the world, new methods of extraction are emerging, but at a cost.

A place not too far from my education home is called Fort McMurray Alberta. It seems to be the center hub of the Alberta oil sands boom. The oil is located within the sand and oil, and the extraction of it is very costly. It requires a lot more energy to extract, then is given from that oil, so it is very unsustainable.

I believe an example of sustainability in the energy sector is nuclear power. Its clean, produces ample power and provides lots of jobs to people. This ties into the positive feedback loop also, where everyone benefits from wage increases.

A topic that was discussed in class was “what is unsustainable in my neighbourhood”. The example I chose was unions, specifically the TTC, although the same can be said for any union. I know I’ll be making some sweeping generalizations here, but I’m a risk taker and a heart breaker, so I’ll continue on.

I believe that unions are just as detrimental as they are needed. They allow lazy workers to hide and get lost in the cracks of the system. I know that from my days of working in a unionized shop, I was amazing at how little work was done at a job. I don’t want to bash unions too much, but I believe that they hinder progress and I believe that to be unsustainable.

Blog 2 the cost of inaction

2009-12-10T23:33:00.000-08:00

At first glance, the title “the cost of inaction” in terms of sustainability and the environment sounds like an inevitable doomsday 2012 end of the world scenario. However, after reading the Stern Report, well not all 700 pages, just the executive summary, I am happy to report the world will not end on December 21, 2012.

The economic and social impacts of the cost of inaction will be the focus of my blog entry.

As discussed in our lecture, the gap between the rich and poor will increase. It goes back to the catchphrase “The rich get richer the poor get poorer”. Data obtained from the UNU-Wider World Distribution of Household Wealth Report (http://www.wider.unu.edu/events/past-events/2006-events/en_GB/05-12-2006/) reveals that North America, which contains 5% of the worlds population, accounts for 33% of the world GDP. A similar trend can be seen within the United States. In 2004, the wealthiest 25% of US households owned 87% ($43.6 trillion) of the country’s wealth, while the bottom quartile held no net wealth at all. The middle 50% of the country held 13% or $6.5 trillion of the total household net wealth (Growing Wealth, Inequality, and Housing in the United States. Zhu Xiao Di. Feb. 2007. Joint Center for Housing Studies).

Countries with the highest GDP should use a small percentage of it and put it towards fighting climate change and GHG emissions; however, developing countries cannot afford to provide such funding. According to the Stern Report “The incremental costs of low-carbon investments in developing countries are likely to be at least $20-30 billion per year”.

A slide shown during the class lecture showed the spending on various products throughout in the world, in billions of 1998 dollars. Leading the spending was of course military, followed by narcotics, and alcohol in Europe. I always knew my Polish ancestors loved their Vodka, now I have the proof.

Basic elements of life, such as clean water, food, education, cost up to thirteen billion dollars to provide. To put that into context, that’s how much Americans (damn them and their ways) spend on cosmetics every year.

Due to the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, things will only get worse. The rich are the ones who can afford private health insurance, have food and water every day, and receive the benefits of an education. This will lead to more poverty and more desperation. Crime could be a result of the desperation, furthering the gap between rich and poor.

The Stern Report deals with the economics of climate change. I am not an economist by any means, but I do have a somewhat basic understanding of it. One of the points I took out of the Stern report is that a little money initially spent (relatively speaking) will save a lot of money in the end. That is when the cost of inaction will become very evident.

What is Sustainable Development?

2009-10-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

When I first hear the words "sustainable development" the first image that pops into my mind is one of contradiction. It's like fire and ice, or hot and cold. I dont see how development can be made sustainable. I'll attempt to explain myself in this first blog post.

To me, something sustainable is balanced, at the very minimum. I'll provide an example and hopefully my meaning will be more clear. Lets take something from nature, like a predator prey relationship, such as rabbits and owls. Owl's eat rabbits, that's a given. There are many rabbits for every owl. Sometimes there will be lots of rabbits, which will provide lots of food. Owls will be able to sustain themselves, but eventually the rabbit population will drop, and so will the owl population. The rabbit population will start to increase, and so will the owl. There is a balance in the relationship, although it sometimes the balance will shift towards one end of the scale or the other.

I dont see how there is a balance in sustainable development. Development takes up resources, and doesn't put anything back. Using my example, it would be the owls eating all the rabbits, without leaving a few to ensure the population will be able to continue.

I come from Toronto, the most populated city in Canada. All of the land around Toronto is being converted from farmland to housing, rural to urban and suburban. Some developments tote themselves as being "green", which I find laughable. The Ontario government has a "places to grow" plan, which is supposed to curb growth and help make development more sustainable.
The plan will not work.

I suppose I've just been going off on a tangent, but the point I'm trying to make is that development can't be sustainable. It can be less harmful, to people and the environment, but I believe it cant be sustainable. The amount of resources needed to support a family in a new development is astronomical, and those resources will never be recouped.

I believe the only way to be close to being sustainable is to go back to a very modest way of living. The Native people of North America used every part of the animals they killed. I don't know how much a chicken gets used, but I'm sure there is some waste left over. I also believe that a family of 4 doesn't need a 3000 sq foot home and a tiny backyard. They would be better off, in my opinion, so settle with a 2000 sq foot home and have a larger backyard so they can grow their own food.

I believe the government should do a lot more to encourage people to be somewhat sustainable, at minimum more self sufficient. I know that in Toronto, its illegal to keep chickens as a source of eggs. Over turning a simple by-law like that would reduce the need to have eggs shipped from all over the province.

I hope I've somewhat answered the question as to what sustainable development is. I know that I answered what it's not. In time, as the course progresses, I'll be better able to answer the question.

My apologies to prof Chris Ling for having to read my tirade.